Foreign direct investment in Mexico plummeted during the first quarter to $2.663 billion as the United States trudged through its worst downturn in decades, the economy ministry said on Friday. That would be a 36.5 percent fall from the figure reported by the government last year for the same period, though the ministry did not provide a comparative reading on Friday.
The ministry sometimes revises its quarterly readings for investment figures. The deep recession in the United States has forced many companies, from carmakers to pharmaceutical firms, to slow down or close Mexican factories that export north of the border.